The present invention relates to firefighter's garments such as coats and trousers, and more particularly to such garments having pieces of trim attached thereto for safety reasons. The pieces of trim are usually made of plastic material or plastic material impregnated with glass beads or microprisms so as to provide outer surfaces which are fluorescent and retroflective. These outer surfaces have a hard finish which causes significant problems over the life of the garments.
The pieces of trim are stitched to the conventional outer shell of the garment which is made of fire retardant material. The stitching has exposed portions disposed adjacent the outer surface of the pieces of trim. A first problem with this construction is the fact that the exposed portions of the thread cannot sink any substantial distance into the outer surface of the trim because of the hard finish on such outer surface. Therefore, the exposed portions of the thread can be readily engaged by objects such as arm or leg portions of the garment which rub over the trim and the exposed portions of the thread thereby tending to abrade the thread and eventually causing it to break. As a result of such abrasion, trim on firefighter's garments often peel away from the associated garment and eventually fall off of the garment.
A second problem with the aforementioned construction is the caused by the fact that the plastic material of the trim gets brittle when it is subjected to a cold environment, and the trim tends to fracture or break at the stitch holes. The stitching can actually cut the trim material in prior art constructions, which of course is undesirable.